


The Hacker

by bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid



Series: MacGyver Episode Tags [5]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: 2x17, Episode Tag, Team as Family, riley and jack as father and daughter, tumblr requests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 17:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13956366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid/pseuds/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid
Summary: http://thehemingwaygoldfish.tumblr.com/ Requested:"How about something from last week's ep? A missing scene? Like, when Jack told Riley about Matty and Mac and asked her to look into the report? How did she react to that?"





	The Hacker

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katikat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/gifts).



“Jack?” Riley asked, raising an eyebrow at Jack’s behavior. Jack had burst into her apartment, shut the door and locked it, and was now in the process of shutting off Riley’s cell phone, which had been on her counter. “Jack!” Riley said again when he ignored her. Jack put his finger up to his lips and went over to turn on her stereo.

“Okay,” Jack said with a sigh once the music was blaring. Riley walked over to join him and promptly shut off the music. Jack gave her an alarmed look and moved to turn it back on but she slapped his hand away.

“You don’t think I protect myself from bugs?” Riley asked in a mock offended tone. “Jack, I have tech that blocks bugs and I sweep for them at least once a week.”

“Boy, you’re a little paranoid aren’t you,” Jack said. Riley gave a sigh and decided not to point out the paranoid way that he had just burst into her apartment.

“I value my privacy,” She said instead. “Now what is going on?”

“Um,” Jack started shifting nervously, “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this, but Mac wanted your help, so I have to explain the situation, but you aren’t going to like it.”

“So involves my dad,” Riley guessed, knowing that Jack only got this weird around Elwood.

“Yes...and Matty and Mac and Jennifer…” Jack said, not looking her in the eye.

“Who? You know what, nevermind. Just tell me what happened.” Riley could tell that he was stalling and just wanted to figure out what was going on and how much it was going to mess up her life.

“We broke into Matty’s safe,” Jack blurted out, still not meeting her gaze.

“You what?” Riley yelled. “That was you?”

“Yes, I had to know if I could trust her with Mac and with you. We were betrayed by our boss before and it almost got us disavowed and killed. I recruited Elwood to help break into the safe and Jackie to help get through Matty’s security system,” Jack was finally looking at her and she could tell that he stood by his actions.

“Jill. You’re talking about Jill aren’t you?” Riley finally realized. She was too stunned to deal with the fact that her FBI father had gotten her biological father back into crime.

“Yes, whatever. Riley, please know that I wouldn’t have asked Elwood to help if I had any other options,” Jack obviously knew that she was upset and was struggling to explain himself.

“It’s bad enough that you broke the law, Jack. But you broke it to break into our bosses house? And you convinced my criminal father to help you? And you dragged poor Jill into this whole thing? How could you?” Riley knew she was yelling, but she didn’t care.

“I know, I know, Riles, but you don’t have all of the information,” Jack pleaded.

“Then give it to me,” Riley said through gritted teeth.

“Okay, you remember the cabin we found that belonged to Mac’s dad?”

“The one that was burned down and had his dad's watch?”

“Yes. So Mac went back up there by himself one day and found some old film buried in the floorboards. He watched it and it was a video of him and his dad filmed from outside of their house. Mac says that in the reflection on the window it looked like it was Matty filming it,” Jack explained quickly.

“How come he never showed it to me? He trusted me with all the other information about his dad,” Riley said feeling a little hurt.

“Because he accidentally burned it. He paused the video on the spot with Matty’s reflection and it caused the film to burn. He doesn't often show how young he is, but this is a time that you could really tell he's a millennial. I mean I could've told him-"

"Jack!" Riley said, knowing that he was about to launch into a rant that she didn't have the patience for.

"Right, sorry. Well anyways, he can’t prove anything because he doesn’t have the evidence anymore. He asked Matty about it once and she denied knowing anything about it.” Jack’s answer made Riley feel a bit better about being left out. He couldn't have shown her the tape because he didn't have it. And he was probably nervous about bringing anyone else in with such flimsy proof.

“Okay, so you broke into Matty’s house to see if you could find any solid information?”

“Yes. I had to Riles, it was driving Mac crazy not knowing what happened to his dad and whether or not he could trust Matty. Unfortunately, I think what I found just left him with more questions.” Jack said, looking distraught. Riley could tell how upset he was on Mac’s behalf and she felt her anger at him fade away completely. She knew that an essential part of Jack’s character was that he would go to great lengths to protect those he cared about. There was no way he could stand by while Mac was hurting.

“I understand Jack, so what did you find?”

“This,” Jack took out his phone and handed it to her. She scrolled through the pictures wordlessly, her apprehension growing with each one. She hadn’t wanted to believe that Matty was lying. She had hoped that Jack would say that he hadn’t found anything and that it would turn out that Mac was mistaken. Anything was better than having yet another boss lie to them.

“So she did know his father,” Riley said finally, handing Jack back his phone.

“Yeah, not only that, it looks like she was investigating him,” Jack said grimly. “Look, Riles, I’m sorry we kept this from you, it’s not that we didn’t trust you, we just didn’t want to drag you down with us if something went wrong, but now we could really use your help.”

“Let me guess, you want me to hack into a bunch of top-secret government agencies with top-notch security and look for more information on Matty’s investigation?”

“Something like that,” Jack said with a wink. Riley thought about how much work and how risky that would be. Then, she thought about Mac and how he must feel being let down by yet another person he was supposed to be able to rely on.

“I’m in,” Riley said confidently. Jack broke into a huge grin and gave her a big hug.

“Thanks, sweetie,” Jack said when he released her. “And just so you know, Elwood was trying to talk me out of breaking and entering the whole time. For what it’s worth, it seems like he’s gone straight and this time it might actually stick.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but Jack, please don’t ever encourage him to break the law again,” Riley said.

“Scout’s honor,” Jack said, putting one hand over his heart and holding the other one up.

“Jack, you weren’t ever a boy scout,” Riley reminded him.

“Heck no, have you seen the outfits they wear? But the sentiment still stands, I will make sure that Elwood is completely legit.”

“Thanks, Jack. Well, I guess I’d better get started breaking into the most secure databases in the world,” Riley said. She knew she was laying it on thick, but Jack never seemed to appreciate how hard hacking really was.

“Sounds good. We are having a family meeting tomorrow at 10 am to talk about all of this and whatever you dig up,” Jack said as he started walking towards the door.

“10 am tomorrow? Jack, that’s only 16 hours away!” Riley exclaimed.

“Yeah, so you’d better start typing,” Jack waved a hand at her laptop.

“Right,” Riley sighed as Jack gave her one last smile and walked out of the door. She opened her laptop and gave a long-suffering sigh. “Guess I’m not getting any sleep tonight,” She mumbled to herself as she began her hacking.

In the end, her efforts produced nothing. Riley would’ve gladly stayed up for three nights in a row if it meant not having to see the look of disappointment on Mac’s face when she told him.

Riley knew that Mac was hurting, but she also knew that they would get through this and figure it all out together. For her part, Riley knew that she was not going to stop digging until she found something out. There had to be a reasonable explanation and she was determined to find it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was what you were looking for :-)


End file.
